Wednesday morning, at our weekly Creative Shacharit, I led a Kohenet style davenning. This means that the liturgy of the service follows the arc of a traditional shacharit service but is often not traditional liturgy. This particular service is compiled from chants and prayers from the Kohenet siddur and from my own writing and repertoire. The language plays with gender of God/Goddess and also with the gender of the community both in the Hebrew and the English. It also includes some earth-based imagery.

This week, we sang together and shared blessings and I did my best to interweave kavanot for each prayer that led us on a journey through shacharit and into our day.

I share this here so others might choose to use this liturgy in their own davenning. I encourage you to choose from these or any other prayers that open your heart and mind to possibilities in your relationship with God and in the way the Jewish community is identified. I like these prayers because they feel like my own language. Maybe you will find some here that feel like yours – or maybe these will inspire you to search elsewhere.

In any language, may we all be blessed to enjoy and be inspired on the journey to the prayers of our hearts.

GRATITUDE

1. Modah Ani

מֹודָה/מֹודֶה אֲנִי לְפָנַיְִך רּוחַ חַיָה וְקַיֶמֶת

Modah/modeh ani lefanayich ruach chai vekayemet

O I am grateful, o I am grateful in the face of the One, in the face of the One

REDEMPTION

7. Mi Chamocha

The Spirit is flowing, flowing and growingThe Spirit is flowing, through you and meHaShem guide me, be faithfully beside meHaShem guide me, and bless how I beThe Spirit is flowing, flowing and growingThe Spirit is flowing, through you and meShechina, reside in me, your wisdom lives inside of meShechina, reside in me, oh Holy of Holies!

RAISING THE SPARKS

10.Aleinu

And we will see Shechinah in thewind across the landwe are a circle within her circleAnd we will be Shechinah in thework of our hearts and our handsShe is a circle, within our circle

Holly Taya Shere adaptation

BLESSING WHAT COMES NEXT

11. This We Pray

We’re gonna ground our feet in our Mother’s body, (x3)This we pray, we pray, we pray.You’re gonna rock our bodies in the sweetest water, (x3)This we pray, we pray, we pray.You’re gonna raise the wind beneath our shining wings, (x3)This we pray, we pray, we pray.You’re gonna fire our souls in the forge of freedom, (x3)This we pray, we pray, we pray.This we pray, we pray, we pray.

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